I don't know how the cable company gets away with running TV ads that say
"so-and-so rating says that we are faster than FiOS" when even the most casual
observer can see that there's absolutely no comparison. Maybe if they ran
the test in the middle of the night and on a node that has no other subscribers
attached to it.

FiOS suffers from congested switches and arbitrarily imposed traffic shaping,
giving exactly the same end-result as congested shared media. If you have
good FiOS bandwidth, consider yourself lucky. Here in the Bay Area, FiOS(-like)
service(s) aren't any better than cable due to over-subscription.

Where do you live (roughly)? Which cable provider? Comcast has been mostly
good bandwidth-wise (but then again, I'm a business-class customer). AT&T
is def. something to avoid if possible in east bay region of Bay Area. Friend
who lives in Sunnyvale recently switched from U-verse to cable. Heard of
similar reports from Verizon customers too. BUT, as you say, depends entirely
on where you live too.